Pirate Radio Ships

In
the middle of 'the swinging Sixties' several radio ships moored
just outside British territorial water to challenge the radio
monopoly of the BBC. The two most popular stations were Radio
Caroline (the first ship) and Radio
London.

Many other radio stations located themselves on ships or on
the offshore forts in the Thames Estuary.

Radio
Caroline started broadcasting at Easter in 1964
on 199 metres to the south-east of England from international
waters just outside the 3-mile-limit by Frinton-on-Sea, Essex.
The intention was to capture a sizeable proportion of the
radio audience of South East England.

Radio London on 266 metres
started several months later and within a very short time
these (and other) stations became incredibly successful, creating
a cult following of an estimated 14 million teen-and-twenty
listeners.

Radio
Caroline (mv Caroline) and rival station Radio
Atlanta (mv Mi Amigo) merged resources within a
few months. The mv Caroline sailed anti-clockwise around the
coast of the UK broadcasting all the time. She finally anchored
off Ramsey, Isle of Man to become Caroline
North. The mv Mi Amigo stayed offshore Frinton
to become Caroline South.

Popular
day trips were organised from Walton-on-the-Naze out to the
pirate ships. The (nearly) famous boat named 'Viking Saga'
used to circle around the radio ships (see my photos below).
In the evenings dedicated listeners parked their cars on top
of the cliffs at Frinton flashing their headlights at the ships
offshore in response to the banter from the D-J's. Heady days
indeed !!

"Ding-Ding" Radio
Caroline(mv Mi Amigo)

"Big-L" Radio London(mv Galaxy)

These
two pictures were taken using my Kodak 'box-brownie' in
the summer of 1965

Here
is a time-line of the more important events in the UK Pirate
Radio History.

Station
names are colour-coded to ease recognition in the list of
fast changing events.

1964

March
28: Radio Caroline, the
first UK off-shore pirate radio station, goes on the air.

May
9: Radio Atlanta pirate
radio ship - moored of the coast of Essex, England - goes
on the air.

May
27: Radio Sutch founded
by Screaming Lord Sutch - later a regular parliamentary candidate
and founder of the Monster Raving Loony Party - goes on the
air from the Shivering Sands Fort in the Thames Estuary

June
3: Radio Invicta, another
UK pirate radio station, goes on the air from Red Sands Towers
in the Thames Estuary.

June
5: Manx Radio broadcasts its first programme from a
caravan. The initial potential audience for commercial radio
programmes was estimated to be 2,500.

July
2: Atlanta and Radio
Caroline merge. mv Caroline sails to the Isle of
Man. Mi-Amigo stays put.

July
13: Radio Caroline North
starts transmissions on 197m offshore Ramsey, IOM.

September:
Radio Sutch changes its
name to Radio City.

November
24: Manx Radio, the first legal land-based commercial
radio station in the British Isles, officially goes on the
air.

December
18: Radio Invicta closes
down.

December
19: Radio London, goes
on the air. Regular programmes began on December 23.

1965

King
Radio: pirate station goes on the air from the
former Radio Invicta installation at Red Sands Tower
in the Thames Estuary.

September
25: Pirate station King Radio
is renamed Radio 390.

September:
Radio Essex pirate station
goes on the air from Knock John Tower in the Thames Estuary.

December
31: Radio Scotland pirate
ship goes on the air at 23:55.

1966

May:
Radio England andBritain
Radio stations go on the air from a ship in the
Thames Estuary.

June
4: Radio 270 pirate ship
goes on the air, broadcasting to northern England from off
the Yorkshire coast.

November
14: Radio England pirate
ship begins transmissions in Dutch and changes its name to
Radio Dolfijn.

December:
Radio Essex pirate station
is successfully prosecuted in UK but is renamed BBMS
(Britains Better Music Station) pending appeal.

1967

January:
BBMS pirate radio station
closes after the failure of its appeal against conviction.

February
8: Radio City closes at
midnight.

March:
Radio Dolfijn pirate station
becomes Radio 227 and
starts broadcasting in English again. Britain
Radio becomes Radio 355.

July
23: Radio 227 closes.

July 28: Radio 390 closes.

August
6: Radio 355 closes.

August 14: Many stations plan shutting down due to impending
introduction of Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act at midnight.
Radio London station closed
at 15:00; Radio Scotland
and Radio 270 closed just
minutes before midnight.Radio Caroline is renamed
to Radio Caroline International
and keeps broadcasting....

August
15: The Marine Broadcasting (Offences) Act comes into force.
This has the effect of outlawing pirate radio in UK, and making
criminals of any person or businesses involved in any way
with the broadcasters.

August
30: The Marine Offences Act become law in the Isle Of Man.

1968

March
3: Both Radio Caroline ships
(broadcasting as Radio Caroline International)
were raided in a well planned operation organised by the Wijsmuller
company (who were owed £30,000 for tender services for
the ships).
A short message was read out to DJs, staff and crew, then both
ships were towed to Holland. Eventually they were put up for
auction in May 1972.

Both
of the Radio Caroline radio
ships remain in harbour in Amsterdam, Holland.

1972

May
29: The radio ships mv Caroline and mv Mi Amigo were put up
for auction.
Caroline was sold for scrap and broken up. The Mi Amigo was
also sold but saved from the scrapyard by a Dutch Free Radio
enthusiast.

September: The Mi Amigo was sailed into the North Sea and re-fitted.
From it Radio 199 started test transmissions.

December:Radio Caroline returns
on 199 metres for a few days from mv Mi-Amigo with a mix of
English/Dutch programming before the crew took over the ship
and had it towed to Amsterdam.

1973

January
2: mv Mi Amigo returns to sea and Radio
Caroline transmissions resume, with Dutch programmes
during the day and English at night.

April 2: Radio Veronica got washed up on the beach after
hurricane force winds. Radio Caroline
provided an emegency service for Veronica for about 10 days.

May:
Radio Caroline International
began test transmissions on 773kHz (389 metres) after the installation
of a new aerial mast. By the end of May Radio
Caroline was successfully transmitting on two frequencies
(259 and 389 metres).

July:The 259 metrestransmitter was used by Radio
Atlantis for day-time programming to Holland and Belgium.
In the evening the station changed name to Radio Seagull
and played album tracks to an English audience.

October: mv Mi Amigo's new aerial collapses, Radio Atlantis/Seagull
continue on low power until Christmas while a new is antenna
was constructed.

When
was this window sticker released?

1974

January
1: Radio Mi-Amigo replaces Radio Atlantis.

February: Power is increased to 50kW.
Radio Caroline comes back on 259 metres replacing
Radio Seagull.

August 31: prior to the introduction of Dutch Marine Offences
Bill Radio
Nordzee Internationalcloses
down. Dutch broadcasters Radio Veronica, Radio Mi-Amigo
and Radio Atlantis also close.

Radio Caroline continued
on 259 metres for another remarkable but difficult four years
([reportedly] being supplied from Spain) until March 1980 (?).

1974
- 2003

Any
info/stories about Radio Caroline
during this period will be greatly appreciated.

Radio
Caroline is still on the air - as an official satellite
radio station!
Former pirate radio station Radio Caroline continues broadcasting
- in digital on Astra-2 satellite at 11.585GHz/H (SR 27500,
FEC 2/3)
- in digital on the Worldspace AfriStar satellite
- and on the Internet.